Comparing industrial zones in Tay Ninh province with Binh Duong province (Part 1)

Many domestic and foreign investors with the need to find industrial parks near Ho Chi Minh often make comparisons between industrial parks in Tay Ninh and those in Binh Duong in order to make the right choice before investing a factory. Here are a few initial opinions from which investors can compare to pick industrial parks near Ho Chi Minh City for investment plans. 

1. Geographical location

Tay Ninh province is located at the bridge position between Ho Chi Minh City and the capital Phnom Penh, Kingdom of Cambodia and is one of the provinces located in the Southern Key Economic Zone. Tay Ninh is located about 30km - 50km from Ho Chi Minh City along National Road No.22, about 40km from the Cambodian border to the Northwest. Trang Bang town is the district of Tay Ninh, mostly nearest area to Ho Chi Minh City.

Meanwhile, Binh Duong is a province in the Southeast region of Vietnam and also a member of the Southern Key Economic Zone as Tay Ninh is. The center of Binh Duong is Thu Dau Mot City, about 30-50 km away from the center of Ho Chi Minh City along National Road No.13.

My opinion:

The two localities have similar advantage of bordering Ho Chi Minh City and both have the same travel distance to Ho Chi Minh City. However, in addition, the two provinces border each other in the area along the Saigon River in Dau Tieng district (Binh Duong province) and Trang Bang town (Tay Ninh province).

However, Binh Duong is adjacent to Ho Chi Minh with 4 districts/towns as Di An town, Thuan An town, Thu Dau Mot city and Ben Cat town with very long boundaries. This is the outstanding advantage of Binh Duong over Tay Ninh in attracting production capital from Ho Chi Minh City.

However, in terms of promoting the export of goods from Ho Chi Minh to Cambodia and Thailand as well as receiving goods and materials imported by road, the industrial zones in Tay Ninh has a clear advantage in terms of transportation costs.

2. Traffic System

According to Binh Duong Department of Transport, by the end of 2020, Binh Duong province currently has about 7,300 km of roads of all kinds, of which the national highway is 77.1 km and the provincial road is 500 km with a 100% plasticization rate. As a locality with quite good traffic infrastructure, including the National Highway 13 axis. It is this National Highway 13 axis that is said to be the "key" to help Binh Duong from an economically disadvantaged purely agricultural locality to become one of the largest industrial capital of Southern Vietnam. National Road No.13 through Binh Duong province intersects with many important traffic routes. From this road, you can go directly to Ho Chi Minh City, to Dong Nai province, to the southwestern provinces at the intersection with National Highway 1A, or run back to the Central Highlands provinces along National Road 14. There are many industrial parks along these roads.

Meanwhile, according to the Construction Investment Project Management Board of Tay Ninh province, by 2021, the road network in the area will have more than 8,200 km. In particular, the road managed by the central government has three national highways (NH), these are the main roads connecting Tay Ninh with the provinces in the southern key economic region, as well as the Southeast region. Locally managed roads have a total length of 8,128 km (accounting for 98.14%), including 740 km provincial roads, 376 km long urban trunk roads and 7,012 km rural roads. But mainly grade IV roads only allow small traffic volume and have deteriorated.

However, Tay Ninh's road infrastructure will soon be improved in the period from 2021-2025 when many new roads are built and upgraded. Accordingly, in 2021, Tay Ninh province will start construction of three projects including the connecting road connecting the N8 - 787B - 789 region, the DT.794 road project and the DT.795 upgrade and expansion project. After the roads are completed, they will meet the transportation needs, connect the raw material area to the processing factory, create favorable conditions for goods trade in the region in two directions from Ho Chi Minh to and from the province. such as expanding connection with Binh Duong.

My opinion: Tay Ninh's transport infrastructure is facing some problems, but the authority has recognized very well and will soon overcome the difficulties in road traffic with new routes connecting Ho Chi Minh City and Binh Duong province.

3. Development pace of manufacturing industries

Regarding this, it must be acknowledged that Binh Duong is a locality with a long history of industrial park development. Specifically: Implement the open door policy towards industrialization and modernization of the Resolution of the 6th National Party Congress (1986), the 7th National Party Congress (1991) and apply the new mechanism after the Law on Foreign Investment in Vietnam in 1987, Song Be province (the predecessor of Binh Duong) has planned 15 industrial zones with a total area of ​​over 6,000 ha. After separating into new province in January 1997, Binh Duong still remained 13 industrial zones with a total area of ​​4,033 hectares and went into the construction of industrial parks at that time, of which the first core park was Song Than 1 Industrial Park with an area of ​​180.33 hectares, established in September 1995.

Meanwhile, industrial shift in Tay Ninh province was only formed in 1998 when Trang Bang Industrial Park (the first industrial park) was established under Decision No.100/QD-TTg dated February 9th, 1999 by the Prime Minister. Up to the present time, Tay Ninh province are developing 6 industrial parks which are in operation including Phuoc Dong Industrial Park (the largest industrial park in Tay Ninh) - one of the major industrial parks in the South Vietnam.

My opinion:

Currently, Tay Ninh province is on their way to make economic restructuring plans towards industrial manufacturing and service development, but it is clear that Tay Ninh still needs more time to catch up with Binh Duong's accumulated industrial development pace coming years.

Therefore, in order to accelerate the speed of industrial development, in addition to the location advantages, it is also necessary to have the planning of available land funds for agriculture. This means that Tay Ninh province has great potentials thanks to available land fund that can be converted to serve industrial production when needed. In addition, it also depends on the investment in transport infrastructure of Tay Ninh in the near future.